Aging Kosciuszko Bridge to Be Replaced

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday the state will invest nearly a half-billion dollars to repair the Kosciuszko Bridge and 84 miles of roads in the city.

The Kosciuszko Bridge connects Queens and Brooklyn on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

It was called the worst in the city by the General Contractors Association a few years ago.

The new bridge will have nine lanes of traffic, three more than it has now.

Construction was slated to begin in 2014 and be completed by 2020, but now construction will be able to begin this fiscal year.

All traffic will be shifted off the exiting viaduct onto the new bridge before 2017.

This accelerated project is part of the governor's "New York Works" program, which aims to create jobs while fixing the state's infrastructure.
---http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/158771/state-money-moves-up-repairs-on-kosciuszko-bridgeThe aging Kosciuszko Bridge — which connects Brooklyn to Queens via the BQE — will be replaced to the tune of $460 million, the state announced this week.

The upgrade is part of a $1.2 billion program of accelerated road and bridge repair and is the single biggest project to come from the New York Works infrastructure program signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo last week.

Construction on the project is scheduled to begin by next April 1, and the new structure is expected to be ready by 2017. It is one of hundreds of structurally deficient bridges around the state.

New York Works is a so-called infrastructure bank that draws from pooled government and private funding designed to speed up spending on big infrastructure projects.

The program will also coordinate big capital construction projects of 45 agencies and authorities, including the MTA, Port Authority and dozens of others.

It will operate under a 15-member governing board, with 9 members appointed by the governor and six by State Legislature. The initial funding decisions were made before the board has been named.
---http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/apr/04/kosciusko-bridge-be-replaced/